


not because of coffee

by Anonymous



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Boys Being Boys, Car Accidents, Cat Cafés, Developing Friendships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Dates, Friends to Lovers, House Party, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Sleepovers, no beta we die like men, not between the main pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27722126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “I can give you his number, or ask him to come by.” Chan leans over, whispering to him as they near the curb.Jeongin huffs, “Neither.”“You sure?”A van turns down the road and drives towards them. Jeongin waves at it.“He probably doesn’t want to talk to me, plus, that's weird.”(or: innie kinda sucks at making coffee, until...)
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Felix/Kim Seungmin, Lee Minho | Lee Know/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 3
Kudos: 83
Collections: Anonymous





	not because of coffee

**Author's Note:**

> hi! i wrote this for a friend, and also because the jeongho tag is really dry :(  
> this turned out a bit shorter than i was hoping for, but i hope you enjoy regardless!

“Thinking of me again?” Minho coos, leaning over the counter as Jeongin ducks behind the espresso machine.

Jeongin huffs and tosses the failed cup of coffee in the trash.

“No, I’m thinking about how stupidly annoying your _coffee order_ is.” He scowls, scrubbing at the residue of cinnamon powder Minho points out on his cheek. He rolls his shoulders, preparing to redo the order for the third time.

Jeongin shoves Minho back by the shoulder, from his teeter over the edge. "You’re lucky we’re closed and—why are you even here? _Again?_ This is definitely workplace harassment.”

Minho smiles emotionlessly, “Ex-employee privilege, Chan loves me, and _you_ asked _me_.”

“No...? No. No he doesn’t.” Jeongin says, distractedly searching for a new bottle of milk. Along the way, he notices how low their stock of eggs is, and sends a quick text to the staff group chat about it. Minho yawns, stretching, as he follows Jeongin’s every move while he rushes between stations.

“Hey hurry up, my bus leaves in five.”

“You’ve never taken the early one, you liar.”

“ _Hm?_ You know my schedule?” Minho opts for sliding straight around the counter, completely ignoring the staff-only sign, as per usual. “Are you keeping tabs on me? That’s _so_ weird.”

Jeongin splutters, spinning around in a flurry. His apron takes a moment to catch up with him. He shoves the cup into Minho’s chest, barely waiting for Minho to take a hold of it before crossing his arms, huffing.

“There.”

Minho stays silent.

Holding eye contact, he slowly brings it up to sip through the straw.

And spits it straight back onto Jeongin.

“Shit, it’s hot!”

Jeongin yelps as he launches back with a stumble, barely avoiding the fridge. “Yeah ‘cause it's _coffee_! What—what did you expect?”

Minho coughs and walks back to steal a pack of tissues from the customer’s side of the counter, Jeongin groaning into his hands all the while. Minho busies himself with dramatically wiping down his fingers one by one, even though none of them had gotten in the spray. After cleaning the cup, Minho reaches over and slaps the entire remaining stack over the stain on Jeongin’s apron.

“Hey.”

Jeongin grunts, wrinkling his nose and burying his face deeper into his hands. “Go away.”

Minho presses his hand flat against Jeongin’s chest, holding the tissues steady.

“Why? You got it right this time though.”

“Because—” Oh, huh. Jeongin peeks through his spread fingers, “Really?”

“Mhm.”

Ignoring the flustered thudding under his palm, Minho tries to scrub at the stain and frowns. “It isn’t going to come off like this, you should add the uniform cost onto my drink.”

“But it already has stains? And… and I covered your drink.” Jeongin trails off.

Minho’s hand pauses, a cat-like grin growing as his eyes narrow. “Perfect, what's the occasion?”

“Nothing.”

“So you _are_ getting soft.”

“No.” Jeongin steps back with a roll of his eyes. “Go on, get out.”

Minho shrugs, letting the tissues separate and flutter to the floor. He turns and places his coffee on a table and picks his coat up from the chair, sliding it on, he gathers his haphazardly scattered belongings together, ready to leave.

“You need to pay for these tissues though!” Jeongin calls once he’s half-way through the door, cool night air crawling past Minho when it stays propped open. Minho turns to see him holding his folded apron and branded cap in one hand, while pointing at something on the floor, obscured by the counter, with the other.

Minho snorts and holds up his phone, _payment sent to Channie_ glaring brightly. Not that Jeongin can see it.“I just did.”

Jeongin sighs, “Stop telling Chan _why_ he needs the replacement money, what if one day he gets mad at me for not stopping you?”

“He won’t!” Minho yells back from the pavement, outside the shop. “I’ll make sure of it!”

“What would you even—”

His complaints are lost behind the shadowy sea of pedestrians, and Minho takes another sip.

It tastes perfect.

Jeongin rocks back and forth on his heels, lip raw under his teeth while he waits for the staff meeting of the _Carpe Diem Café_ to end.

They're all standing up at this point, small-talk really, the chairs were tucked away and the meeting is _technically_ over. Jeongin watches as his coworkers scramble and stumble over themselves to talk to Chan. The white light of the backroom stings, and he rubs his eyes, holding back a yawn. With luck, his coworkers will soon be hungrier than he is and take it upon themselves to leave. He hopes it'll be that kind of scenario today, dealing with an irritable Chan after scolding his own employees is… not fun.

“You alright?”

Jeongin looks up from where he’d been staring at the floor, the room is empty, save him and Chan, smiling kindly towards him.

“Yeah, just a little sleepy.” He smiles at him.

“Do you need a lift home?” Chan often drives him when they go overtime, like tonight.

“No not today I… actually can I ask something?” Jeongin’s smile turns sheepish.

Chan nods brightly, packing his own bag while waiting for Jeongin to continue.

“Have you seen Lee Minho hyung around?”

Chan nods again, “Sure, we hung out last night, why do you ask?”

Jeongin frowns, and slugs his backpack higher over his shoulder, picking up a few bottles of soda to trash on the way out.

“Jeongin?”

“Uh,” he hated lying, “it’s nothing.”

Chan laughs and pats him on the back as he jogs past to flick off the last of the lights, and do a final once-over of the shop.

“I guess he was lying about liking that coffee then.” Jeongin mutters quietly to himself. His last alternative is switching his shift schedule with one of his gracious coworkers, but then he would barely have time to get to his afternoon classes. And while he wouldn't have cared in any other situation, he doesn't want to admit he ever risked his grades for _Minho_.

Jeongin glances up as Chan repeats himself—asking if he's ready to go—and he tightens his grip on his backpack straps.

They leave together, Jeongin walks with Chan along the dark sidewalk, still lost in thought. Chan takes the silence in stride and fills Jeongin in about the latest ‘Karen Incident’ as they’d dubbed it, from earlier this morning.

“Does Minho hyung hate me?” Jeongin finally asks, too tired to hold his thoughts back from spilling out. Chan startles at the interruption and they both pause their steps. It’s only another block to Jeongin’s pick-up point and he can’t hear his friend’s boombox anywhere. A small break is fine.

“No.” Chan looks at him with a strange expression… concern? “Of course not, but what brought this on?”

He and Chan are… almost-friends, one might say. He doesn't call him _Mr. Bang_ anymore, and they hang out outside of work more often than most acquaintances. Chan likes to help when transport isn't available, but they're still working on getting over the weird boss level barrier.

Jeongin shrugs, “He hasn’t been around during my hours in almost two weeks. I thought maybe his classes had changed but you said you saw him last night, ah... what am I saying. Sorry.”

“You’re fine.” Chan pats his shoulder then pauses to think, “Why haven't you asked him yourself?”

They're walking again, passing under sickly-yellow street lamps. Chan slides his other hand into his pocket as a chill sweeps by, and Jeongin turns to him in confusion, “What? I just told you I haven’t seen him in ages, how would I ask?”

“Through… text? Phone call?”

Jeongin stares blankly, “Wait… why would I have his number? Hyung, we’re not _friends_.”

Raising an eyebrow, the corner of Chan’s lip twitches.

“Really? He talks about you all the time.”

Jeongin coughs and stumbles. Chan’s hand slides down from his shoulder to squeeze at his elbow.

“ _What?_ ”

“Hm, maybe I wasn’t supposed to say that.” Chan drawls. “Careful don’t trip.”

Jeongin glares at him, in search of further explanation, but Chan only mimes zipping up his lips in return, and shrugs apologetically.

The wet crunch of gravel fills the silence as they step into a light rain shower. Or maybe it’s the breeze floating some over. Jeongin can’t exactly tell, but he thanks his past self for bringing along the warm, brown hoodie he’s wearing. A minute passes, and Jeongin starts to think he can hear the muffled blaring of his friend’s favourite song in the distance. Chan notices too, so they pick up the pace.

“I can give you his number, or ask him to come by.” Chan leans over. whispering to him as they near the curb.

Jeongin huffs, “Neither.”

“You sure?”

A van turns down the road and drives towards them. Jeongin waves at it.

“He probably doesn’t want to talk to me, plus, that's weird.”

Chan hums, and pulls out his phone. Without warning he twists around to shove it into Jeongin’s face. Minho’s instagram page flashes, and in a split second Jeongin can feel himself ingraining the username into his head. Damnnit.

Chan quickly shoves into his pocket and steps away as the car drives up.

Jeongin jogs to open the door, light splashing onto pavement as it runs to escape from the thudding bass.

“See you tomorrow!” 

He turns when Chan calls out, waving and watching him disappear around the corner, to where his own car is parked. There’s actually a private parking lot behind the _Carpe Diem Café,_ but Chan rarely uses it anymore, only so he has an excuse to walk Jeongin to his pick-up point.

“ _HEY!_ I can’t even hear myself _think_ , come on!” Jeongin screams, struggling his way into the furthest back seat. The van is full of an assortment of neon christmas lights, brightly coloured pillows, and blankets. One of which his foot is currently tangled in.

He drops his façade of anger and snorts once he hears laughter from the front, getting louder by the second as the music turns down.

“Thanks!”

“Sure, you’re paying for lunch next though!”

“Yeah, yeah, got it.” Jeongin sighs back into the nearest fox shaped pillow.

He's been sitting through a boring, late-morning lecture. Slouched on his chair, while scrolling through Minho’s profile for the past hour.

The guy in front of him has been Netflix binging the whole time.

Somehow.

Jeongin wipes a hand down his face, maybe he should’ve taken the number instead. This is far too awkward and he _really_ doesn't want Minho to know he’s now seen him outside of… their usual routine.

And by _seen_ , he's referring to the—around twenty—heavily filtered selfies… amongst the three thousand cat photos Minho’s feed is completely littered in.

Jeongin sighs again, and taps back to his own profile to see if anything looks strange. He wonders why he cares so much. Hesitating again, he glances up to check if his professor is looking in his general direction, then opens up a new direct message.

 **f0xx1nn13:** this is yang jeongin

Hmm… _awkward_ but good enough he supposes- 

The professor coughs and Jeongin shoves his phone back into his pocket, straightening to lean back in his chair.

He fiddles with his pens, doodling cats onto his notebook, until the class ends and he packs them away with the rest of his supplies. Jeongin leaves with much euthansiaum to meet up with Seungmin for lunch, greeting him with a smile as they walk together to find a bench outside, the weather is refreshing after all the showers they had gotten the past week. He keeps his focus on the food, and Seungmin, of course, pointedly ignoring the insistent buzzing vibrations from his phone. It’s unmuted, but thankfully too quiet to hear over the rambunctious students around them.

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Seungmin asks for the link to the cute puppy video they’re chatting about, complaining over having to imagine everything Jeongin haphazardly describes.

He scrolls down through his clogged notification bar for a moment, thumb sweaty.

No new replies.

Hm...

Maybe he’s sleeping, Jeongin sighs in relief and Seungmin, ever perceptive, quirks an eyebrow. He quickly sends the link.

“I thought I lost it.” Jeongin tries to giggle a bit and Seungmin rolls his eyes at the obvious cover-up, but drops his suspicion once the thumbnail pops up on his screen.

Jeongin munches into his sandwich and watches the sunlight drift across the courtyard.

An hour before work begins, Jeongin is on his bed in the dorms, scrolling aimlessly while getting in some rest before work. Another student trapped in the cycle of homework procrastination. Ugh—

 **liliknows:** ( ﾟДﾟ)＜!!

 **liliknows:** ( ﾟДﾟ)＜!!

 **liliknows:** ( ﾟДﾟ)＜!!

Jeongin almost drops his phone on his face.

 **f0xx1nn13:** hi lol

 **liliknows:** ଲ(ⓛ ω ⓛ)ଲ

 **f0xx1nn13:** what

Minho sends a cat sticker.

 **liliknows:** did chan give you my @

 **f0xx1nn13:** yea

 **liliknows:** traitor

Jeongin winces and rolls over to lie on his stomach.

 **f0xx1nn13:** sorry

 **f0xx1nn13:** u can block me if you want

 **liliknows:** ૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა

And… a spam of completely unrelated cat gifs.

How are they supposed to talk like this? Jeongin wonders if Minho acts like this with all his friends.

 **f0xx1nn13:** ok

 **f0xx1nn13:** so

 **f0xx1nn13:** i just wanted to ask why you havent shown up in awhile

The chat bubble appears and disappears for a whole minute. Jeongin smacks his face repeatedly. Maybe he should just block him and start a new life on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Probably not, Seungmin wouldn’t be happy about it.

Jeongin huffs into his pillow, and almost taps on the block button when Minho finally answers.

 **liliknows:** do u miss me !!! ;))))))))))

Almost three minutes for… that? Jeongin cringes, rolling over again with a groan.

 **f0xx1nn13:** …

 **liliknows:** ;))))) ??

 **f0xx1nn13:** youre worse over text

 **liliknows:** if you hate me so much why would you want me to visit

 **f0xx1nn13:**?

 **f0xx1nn13:** i dont dislike you

The incoming video call alert starts ringing, blasting out into the otherwise silent room. Jeongin squeaks and drops his phone, along with the accept button, right onto his nose.

The universe definitely has it out for him today.

Jeongin covers the camera with his thumb as he picks up his phone and sits up to scoot back, leaning against the wall.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Innie,” Minho’s face is heavily pixelated from the darkness of his room, “do you _like_ me?”

Jeongin scoffs. "Neutral. I’m neutral about you. Seriously I just thought you died or something because you hadn’t come in awhile. Or ran off to join the circus.”

“I would be a good clown though right?”

“Ugh.”

“Wait! Don’t hang up,” the camera shakes as Minho sits up and moves towards something, “how about this—if you take your finger off the camera, I’ll come see you, and explain, before _and_ after class.”

“That’s… too much caffeine.”

“Gotta make up for it right?”

“You haven’t had coffee in a week?” Jeongin scrunches his nose.

A distorted cackle jolts through his speakers, “Of course not. I meant seeing you.”

“Ah…” Jeongin doesn’t know what to say.

Light pours in onto Minho’s face as he yanks back his curtains, revealing his bed-head and puffy face to the camera. He looks angelic. _Wait what—_

“So how about it? You can see me now right?”

“Yeah-” Jeongin slides his thumb off for a second, then back. “Boom. Done.”

Minho shouts and Jeongin shakes with laughter, losing his grip on his phone for a second—before covering it with his hand.

Minho snorts. “Cute. Okay close enough, ten minutes, then.”

“Ten?” He frantically looks to the clock on his desk. “Shit!”

“Languag—”

Jeongin hangs up and rushes to grab his uniform, dropping it along with his phone into his backpack. He doesn’t bother tying his shoelaces as he stumbles out the door and into the dormitory’s hallway, almost knocking over his roommate's umbrella in the process.

“Sorry!” Jeongin stutters out when he steps into the way of another student emerging from the bathroom. “I’m late for something!”

Outside, he slips on the patio stairs, losing his grip on the railing and scuffing his knees against the concrete. Someone reaches out to him in concern but Jeongin brushes them off—along with his tears—and runs towards the bus stop.

Predictability, the bus is nowhere in sight.

“Damn it.”

He dials for Chan, panting, foot tapping against the pavement.

“Hi this is Chan speaki—wait, Innie? What’s wrong you’re usually not—”

“I missed my bus.”

Chan is silent for a moment and Jeongin scratches his elbow nervously, he hasn't been late before.

“I see.” Something clangs in the background, and Jeongin feels calmer, not detecting any anger in Chan's voice. “We’re just about to open so I don’t think I can pick you up, do you want to skip your first shift and come in on the second?”

Jeongin bites his lip.

“Or both of them entirely,” Chan adds, “I won’t deduct it from your vacation days either way.”

“I’ll be there for the second one.” He doesn't want to get on any of his coworker's bad sides.

“Cool, see you then!”

The line goes dead and Jeongin pulls his phone away to stare down at it.

 **f0xx1nn13:** you made me miss my bus!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the fuck man!!!!!!!!!

 **liliknows:** HHAHAHA

 **liliknows:** do u still want to meet?

Jeongin glares at the culprit through his cracked screen protector, and responds with a simple, thumbs-up emoji.

 **liliknows:** :)

 **liliknows:** lets go to the library its closer

Does this count as meeting up with a stranger? He's been talking (arguing) with Minho for only a month or two at work, prior to his disappearance, but they certainly haven't seen each other outside of it. Minho is friends with Chan though, and they go to the same university, so their maybe circles run closer than he realises. Jeongin thinks it over his stranger-danger turmoil as he slowly creeps past the tables full of his fellow students, searching for Minho.

Something tugs at the collar of his shirt.

“Psst.”

He jumps, whipping around to come face-to-face with Minho, poking out from between the bookshelves, who blinks at him.

"Min—" He's cut off when a hand covers his mouth and Minho shushes him.

"I am _shushing_." Jeongin hisses after biting the offending hand. Minho shrugs and tugs at his sleeve, motioning down the row of shelves.

They walk deeper into the library. A few rows later, Jeongin sees a small, secluded table near a window, lit by the setting sun glinting through the glass. He recognises Minho’s bag and coat, laid out on it. Minho lets go of his sleeve and they sit down across from one another on the soft alcove bench behind the table.

“So,” He crosses his arms, as Minho stares pointedly away towards the window, “you’re going to explain?”

Minho pulls at his lip between his teeth, and nods.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worried.”

Jeongin frowns, not expecting an apology so quickly, and scratches his cheek, “That doesn’t explain anything though.”

Minho turns to him, face twisting in distaste, “Yeah _I know_ , this isn’t fun for me either.”

“What?” Jeongin glares, confused. “Dude just fucking spit it out- you said you wanted to do this in person, didn’t you?”

“See! It's just that—” Minho freezes, waving apologetically at the librarian who shushes him from nearby. Lowering his voice, he continues, “it’s just _that_ , exactly _that_. You always act standoff-ish. I thought you didn’t like me.”

“Well,” Jeongin scratches at his elbow, “like I said, I don’t _dislike_ you, but… if you believed it the whole time why did you keep coming back?”

“For my nightly fix of caffeine?”

“But you stayed overtime.”

Minho pinches the bridge of his nose, “Alright, fine. I was waiting for you to get my order right—within three tries at least—to make sure you would be fine with customers more annoying than I am. Okay?”

Jeongin blinks.

“Sorry, I—”

“No!” Jeongin glances in the direction of the librarian, “It's… that's okay. Really nice actually. But why?”

“Wow, you’re on a _roll_ with these questions. Ever thought about becoming a journalist?”

Minho stretches, folding his hands behind his head and leaning against the wall.

“Stop it, stop changing the subject.” Jeongin whines, relaxing as his initial fears abate.

“Hm…” Minho shifts out of his position to pretend to flip the pages of a textbook, as the same librarian from before walks past, squinting suspiciously at them, “I didn’t mean to, the first time. I came because Chan mentioned hiring a newbie—and the turnover rate of Carpe Diem isn’t exactly _fast_ —so I was curious.”

Minho shuffles in seat as Jeongin nods at him to continue, “I saw you mess up a bunch of orders but no one complained because you were so cute,” Minho snickers softly, “but after that old guy yelled at you the next week I came over, I got worried.”

Jeongin tenses and feels his face grow hot. “I didn’t know I messed up so many…”

Minho's eyes grow panicked and he waves his hands hurriedly. “Don’t worry about it! No one got hurt and you’re doing way better now, that’s all that matters—”

“Oi. _Both of you_ , out _now_ before I revoke your library cards.” The librarian cuts in with a scowl.

They both jolt at the intrusion and Jeongin scampers out of his seat. Minho rolls his eyes, glaring at the librarian, who grumbles in return, and scoops up all his belongings to follow Jeongin towards the exit.

As they pass between a row of shelves, empty of any other students, or nosy librarians, Minho tugs on his sleeve again to pause them.

“Please don’t be upset over that,” he says, cupping Jeongin’s face when he turns around, almost too-close, and wiping at the edge of Jeongin’s eyes. “your mood is really contagious.”

Jeongin nods, only now noticing the slight dampness on his face. “Yeah, sorry.”

Minho smiles tightly in return, then looks down.

“What happened to your knees?” 

Jeongin blinks, confused, then remembers his fall. “Oh, it’s nothing, I slipped while trying to catch the bus earlier, s’all.”

Minho frowns, hands leaving Jeongin’s face to reach down to brush off the remaining specks of dirt. They stare at each other until they hear more footsteps behind them and they turn to continue walking, quickly winding their way through the labyrinth of shelves and stepping over the dozens of stray books and bags. Jeongin softly apologies to his fellow students as they twist around the mass of tables closer to entry.

Jeongin leaves Minho to check out a book he had picked up on the way, and when he returns, Minho is still waiting where he left him, coat on, leaning against a pillar and staring out at the fading sunlight. Glowing.

Minho glances at him. “Your username is weird by the way. Give me your number.”

"Sure— _hey_ wait—I made it when I was _thirteen_ okay," Jeongin protests in loud whispers as they near the doors, "I just never bothered to change it."

Minho hums and Jeongin holds out his phone for Minho to type in his number.

When he hands it back, Jeongin squints down at the time. “You have class soon right? I have to go to the café now.”

Minho nods. “I’ll head over later.” He walks backwards while waving.

Jeongin watches Minho sidestep a lamp pole without looking.

“Okay, yeah. Cool!” Jeongin turns away as Minho smiles coyly. “Cool.”

**Unknown:** :3c

The bus drives over a pothole, and Jeongin bounces, fumbling to save the number and type in Minho’s name.

 **You:** :^

He feels more refreshed than most nights, as his shift comes to end and Minho waltzes in, key ring jingeling in his hands. His coworkers have already left, Chan leaving even earlier to attend a sports event half an hour ago. Jeongin grumbles as he slides his apron back on from, unfolding it with a shake.

“Why’d you take it off if you knew I was coming?” Minho jumps up to sit on the counter.

“Get off!” Jeongin squeaks as a stack of business cards fall to the floor.

“Oops.”

“Hyung!”

Minho laughs, leaning closer to him, ignoring the mess on the floor, “I’ll clean it up for you later. Coffee first.”

"Is that... cat hair?" Jeongin stares at his lapel.

"Yeah," Minho squints back at him, "is that a turn off?"

He grunts when Jeongin pushes at his shoulder, and they both scowl in tandem. “Just don’t get it all over here, that’s a health hazard.”

Jeongin tries to listen as Minho rattles off long order, head spinning as he scrambles to prepare it. He picks the wrong type of milk, not realising until part way through piling on toppings. Which... are also wrong… _shit_. Jeongin pales at the sight of his frothy failure.

“Innie.” Minho calls. “Don’t overthink it, try again.”

Jeongin tosses the cup and Minho repeats the order, biting his lip in determination to get it right this time around. He's done this before, he can do it again.

The counter is only in minor disarray, messing up once is better than, _well_ , who knows how many mistakes he made the first time. Jeongin hastily fixes everything to semi-clean slate. Taking a deep breath, back facing away from Minho, he begins. His smile grows wider the further along he gets, listening with a fluttering heart as Minho makes encouraging noises every so often. The ticking of the clock on the wall is getting louder, Jeongin glares at it while spinning to grab some sugar. Any lapse in concentration might cost him—dramatic as it may sound—and really, who the hell knows how to read analogue clocks these days in the first place?

Jeongin holds the finished cup inches from Minho’s hand, then pulls back, squinting.

“Wait a second—don’t drink it straight away while it's hot this time!”

Minho glares. “ _Of course._ I learnt my lesson, and now,” he gestures to the floor, “I have all this to clean up in the meantime.”

Jeongin places the paper cup down, out of Minho’s reach, and Minho slides off the counter with a wink, crouching down on the floor to silently pick up the scattered cards. Jeongin, with a roll of his eyes, busies himself with cleaning up.

After some comfortable silence, Minho plops the filled acrylic holder back onto the counter, smirking. “See? My plan all along.”

He reaches for the cup and takes a sip, closing his eyes. Jeongin holds his breath.

“Oh g-d.” Minho lets out a sigh as the drink slides down his throat. “Perfect.”

Jeongin smiles in relief. “Second try!”

“You’re getting better,” Minho says after a few more gulps, “and here I thought you’d’ve forgotten everything after I was gone for so long.”

Jeongin huffs as Minho’s laugh tinkers out into the room.

The room grows quiet and the comfortable silence stretches on, Jeongin continues flicking off all the lightswitches and wiping down the counters as Minho finishes his coffee.

“So,” Jeongin says, setting down his spray cleaner bottle and rag, “Guess I’ll be seeing you around, man?”

There's more to that sentence, Jeongin hopes Minho will realise it includes _outside_ of work.

Minho tosses the empty paper cup over Jeongin’s shoulder and into the bin behind him.

Or he would’ve. If he didn’t miss.

Jeongin grumbles, going to dispose of it properly.

“I’m sure you’ll be _wanting_ to get rid of me.” Minho snickers.

“Maybe we should’ve given you a normal mug then,” Jeongin mutters as he hunches over, “since you’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Jeongin shuffles the mismatched cushions on Seungmin’s couch, trying to get comfortable as Seungmin searches for another playlist to marathon on YouTube.

“Hey,” Seungmin tugs on his sleeve, and Jeongin turns to see him staring at his email folder, “can you look over these photos before I send them off to the newsletter guys?”

“Sure dude,” Jeongin says, “from the baseball game?”

“Of course.” Seungmin opens his file explorer and searches for his finalized set.

“Right up your alley, huh?” Jeongin laughs. “Must’ve been fun.”

“It was.” Seungmin turns the screen to face Jeongin more directly, and slowly tabs through them. Jeongin nodding along, or, rarely, shaking his head.

“I already sorted the blurry ones out.” Seungmin switches a few photos in his Dropbox folder, on Jeongin’s suggestion. Then double checks his email once more before sending it.

They watch it leave his outbox.

“Aw, and I thought you were just that good.” Jeongin snorts. “You should post some of these on your instagram.”

Seungmin groans and lies back onto the couch, cracking his spine and pulling up YouTube again. “ _Yeah_ I wish dude, but they still have the stupid _wait for the uni newsletter to come out first_ rule. No one even reads it!”

“Hey! I read it...” Changbin’s muffled voice butts in

Jeongin turns to peak over the couch at Seungmin’s flatmate. “The fuck? Why do you have _popcorn_?” Jeongin squints against the light. “Can you even see the screen from over there?”

“Don’t ask him that.” Seungmin yanks Jeongin back down. “He’ll start ranting. And hyung, you’re in journalism!”

“Designating foods for certain activities—”

_“Changbin!”_

“I’m joking! Jeez.” Changbin leans forwards and throws a piece of popcorn over the couch. “You losers. Anyways, you should send me something to post on my story. So I can pretend I was there.”

Seungmin lights up, “Oh! I forgot I took a few photos on my phone, I can post those for now.”

“Don’t forget about me.” Changbin whines, tossing more popcorn.

Seungmin catches the popcorn before it can hit the couch, and eats it.

“This is your couch too y’know. Stop dirtying it.”

Jeongin ignores the popcorn barrage and looks back to Changbin. “But why do you need to fake being there, hyung?”

“People will think I’m _boring_ for not skipping work.”

“I didn’t go either!” Jeongin sulks. “Am I boring?”

“No!” 

Changbin’s phone buzzes, signalling his break time is over, perfect timing as he runs out of popcorn. They all quiet down, and he turns off the lights, disappearing into his room. He returns with his own laptop and noise cancelling headphones, and Seungmin scoots to make room for him to squeeze onto the couch.

Seungmin’s laptop continues playing a random gaming video while he snuggles with Jeongin, slowly swiping through his gallery. Changbin pauses his typing to give a thumbs up when his phone pings.

"Who's that?" Jeongin eyes the smidge of blond hair in the corner of a selfie. Seungmin rarely sits with others at games.

Seungmin smiles but doesn't say anything, leaning closer against him and swiping again to the next one.

Jeongin fumbles with his backpack as he enters the men’s restroom, holding it to his chest while trying to slide his notebook in before he drops it on the grimy floor.

Smiling in victory, Jeongin looks up to see Minho frantically drying his hands while holding a pile of loose papers to his side, wincing against the air blasting by.

“Oh!”

Minho steps away and spots him at the noise. “Jeongin?”

Jeongin waves, trying not to drop his backpack.

“ _Funny_ , I don’t know how we haven’t met here when we’ve been going to the same university for so long.” Minho chuckles, snatching a sheet of paper back as it escapes.

Jeongin side steps another student coming through the door behind him, wincing when his shoe squishes into the wing’s collective gum sculpture, barely missing the puddle of piss beside it.

“I guess we don’t really use the same buildings though.” Jeongin shrugs sheepishly, awkwardly hopping his leg up to try and inspect his soles.

“Mhm, that's true.” Minho checks his watch. “Shit I gotta—”

“Yeah, go ahead.” Jeongin waves him off, and he smiles thankfully, breezing by Jeongin and barging straight into the hallway-current of students outside the door. “Bye hyung!”

Jeongin stares at the row of urinals for a solid half-minute, until one of his project partners bursts out from a nearby stall.

“Yo, was that… Lee Minho outside?” He asks upon spotting Jeongin, who coughs at the smell wafting past.

Jeongin nods, not wanting to open his mouth.

“That was weird as hell man, I’ve never seen him just... _hanging around_ during class times before.” He squints at Jeongin, pats him on the shoulder, then leaves without washing his hands.

Jeongin blinks, filing _that_ away in his head, and smiles widely after his project partner in disgust.

Fucking gross.

"But you never go to parties." Jeongin stops in his tracks and gapes at Seungmin, pausing their trek towards the bus stop.

It's a nice Saturday evening, a few days after the _bathroom encounter_. Jeongin hasn’t run into Minho outside of work since then.

Seungmin shrugs. "It's a celebratory thing. Our team won the game."

"Our?"

"College."

"Right." Jeongin clears his throat. "Fine okay, I'll go with you. Since you're such a big baby."

Seungmin flicks Jeongin's forehead. 

“Wait what about your bus?” Jeongin says when Seungmin doesn’t continue walking, instead he pulls up a browser to research party-appropriate outfits.

“It's fine, I’ll catch the later one.”

As it turns out, the both of them are too broke to recreate any perfect combinations. But Seungmin insists on _at least_ buying makeup, so they detour to a conveniently placed convenience store to drop their combined pocket money on a cracked eyeshadow palette.

The door jingles as they leave, stepping out onto the sidewalk. Seungmin has the small plastic bag hooked on his elbow, while he squints cutely down at his phone.

Jeongin scans the near-empty street, spotting a man loitering in front of the 7/11 across from them. Wait—

“Minho?”

“Huh?” Seungmin looks at him, head tilting.

“Ah it’s—” Jeongin waves his hands, “nothing, you go on ahead.”

Seungmin purses his lips. “Okay, if you’re sure. I’ll come over tomorrow evening so we can get ready together, alright?”

“Yeah I got it.”

Jeongin watches Seungmin leave, and feels the dusk grow colder. After checking for cars, he crosses the road—and as he does so—Minho looks up, startling upon seeing him.

Minho stops tapping on his phone, and with a wave, Jeongin hurries over. From this closer distance, Jeongin notices Minho is holding a bag of cat food.

“Innie?” Minho stares at him like he’s grown a second head. “I was about to text you. Are you a telepath?”

“What- no!” Jeongin scitters to a halt, hopping over the curb. “What were you going to text me?”

Minho flips his phone towards him, showing a picture of a kitten.

“The shelter my mum volunteers for asked her to name him.” Minho smiles softly. “But she wants me to instead.”

“Then why ask me?” Jeongin frowns, stepping around to stare at the photo again when Minho turns his phone back around.

Minho shrugs, humming.

They don’t speak for a moment, as he zooms in and out of the photo.

“What about…” Jeongin stares at the screen in exaggerated seriousness, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Lee Know!”

Minho’s fingers pause their pinching, and his eyes flutter at Jeongin for a second, before he erupts into giggles. He switches back to KakaoTalk, opening up the chat log with his mum, and types the name.

They both watch as a spam of positive stickers fill the screen.

Now he knows who Minho gets it from, Jeongin snorts and looks to the man in question. Minho is backlit from the 7/11’s light, and it is only then Jeongin realises how late it is.

“I should go,” Jeongin says, hot puffs of air contrasting with the night, “I’ll see you next week?”

Minho nods, neck craned offensively low while he keeps texting his mum.

This is… definitely not _next week_. Their circles must run closer than he thought, or maybe Jeongins the one spiraling in. He's not a first year anymore, but he still hasn't made many friends outside of the ones he went to highschool with.

Through the pink and purple haze and a sea of heads, he can see Minho across the room, talking to someone in the kitchen. Jeongin didn't think a house full of rowdy jocks would be Minho's _scene_ per-say, but then again neither is it his. Or Seungmin’s.

He sees someone leave the kitchen as his friend detaches from his side and strides towards it.

Seungmin's hand is sliding, ruffling bleached blond hair, Chan is waving right at him and—

"Oh." Jeongin says. "So that's it."

The bass lovingly muffles his voice.

A man stumbles into him and Jeongin catches him, almost knocking over a lamp as he stumbles back. Jeongin stares down at his long hair, tied back with a ribbon, in awe, then gags as the strong smell of overly sweet alcohol hits him.

“Hey… sorry,” The man mumbles into his shirt, before lifting up his head, revealing his pretty face to Jeongin, “you look lonely.”

“Hyunjin!” Jeongin startles again as the man—presumably Hyunjin—is dragged off of him. He watches Hyunjin collapse lazily into the arms of a small man, who struggles to hold him up.

“Sorry! Sorry about that.” The new man grunts through gritted teeth, low voice mixing with the thudding bass. “This is Hyunjin my uh, buddy—I’m a transfer student— _name’s Felix_ , he’s usually not like this.”

“It's fine!” Jeongin smiles, trying to decipher what the man is going on about over the music.

Hyunjin, buddy. Felix, transfer student.

Got it.

Felix drags Hyunjin away, and Jeongin looks back towards the kitchen, letting out a sigh of relief when he sees Minho is still there, leaning against the kitchen island.

He edges into the crowd, awkwardly ducking and dodging the flailing arms of athletes he recognises from Seungmin’s sports photography. The noise gets louder once he gets past the first barrier of people, Jeongin clenches his jaw. “Great.”

Sending painful sparks up and throughout his skull, his eardrums force his braceless teeth to join the music's dupstep rhythm, a morbid orchestra of chattering bones. It's almost as if they're trying to speak, begging Jeongin to run far, far away from the DJ's set up. Sweat weaves a creeping lattice across his forehead, and Jeongin wishes under his breath for some relief. But he knows better than to venture further up—or down—from the ground floor. Crashing an orgy and losing his wallet to someone's dealer is certainly _not_ on his agenda tonight. Or any other night.

The strobing lights pick up speed, and Jeongin blinks dizzily.

Stepping into the kitchen, the sound quiets down slightly, _only slightly_ , Jeongin wipes his sleeves across his face, looking up as Minho squeaks a small greeting in recognition.

“Well, this is a surprise.” Minho says, as Jeongin comes fully into view. “I didn’t think this was your kind of…”

Jeongin shrugs, taking the rainbow sprinkled energy ball Minho hands to him. “I could say the same about you.”

Minho looks like almost a completely different person, his glitter smudged face dazzlingly beautiful under the lights. But he still looks on softly, watching Jeongin slowly nibble off the sprinkles.

At least, until he opens his mouth.

“You sure could, but at least I’m dressing the part.” Minho smirks.

Jeongin covers his chest with one arm, gasping deliberately. “Don’t just _insult my clothes._ ”

He squishes the next ball, as Minho passes it to him, right back into Minho’s palm.

Minho laughs darkly, and Jeongin continues, scowling. “Not all of us have full wardrobes of hot ass outfits lying around.”

“You think I look hot?”

Fuck.

Jeongin freezes. He meant the outfit, right?

“That’s not—”

Hyunjin crashes into Minho, fingers barely grazing the counter, a gross miscalculation of his wingspan.

“ _Woah_ there.” Minho catches Hyunjin as he slips, socks sliding against the kitchen tiles. “Hyunjinnie? Didn’t you come with Felix?”

Hyunjin's whole body shakes slightly and he slips again. Minho’s sticky hand smears down the side of his white shirt—ruining it even further—when he tries to pull him up again.

“Hyung _,_ you smell nice.”

“I will _drop you._ ”

Minho sighs and pushes back Hyunjin’s sweaty bangs with his clean hand, pausing to raise an eyebrow at Jeongin.

Jeongin realises he’s been glaring.

“Uh yeah—I saw him with Felix earlier, I’ll go get him.”

Getting a nod and thumbs up in return from Minho, Jeongin turns to search. He makes sure to avoid the spilt beer on the floor, hyperaware after seeing Hyunjin slip, as he leaves the kitchen.

He winces as his ears adjust to louder noise again, and keeps himself close to the wall, trying to spot Felix through the crowd.

Across the room, Felix is talking to Chan. Their lips are moving but Jeongin can’t hear anything over the music. Chan has more of a confused expression than Felix’s tense one, though he _is_ still clenching and unclenching his jaw periodically. Felix points somewhere behind Chan, and Jeongin sees Seungmin talking to someone he doesn’t recognise.

Chan waves a placating hand, lips frowning, when Felix’s expression turns stormy.

As Jeongin tries to move closer, Felix sharply turns and stalks off, leaving Chan behind.

“Wait!” Jeongin calls pointlessly. He steps into the crowd and panics upon immediately losing sight of Felix. “Fuck, _fuck,_ where did he go?”

A girl from his general ed class squeaks as Jeongin steps on her foot.

“Sorry!”

“It's—” Someone lurches between them and they both sway backwards in sync. “It's fine!”

Jeongin realises he’s closer now, to the opposite wall. The door to the patio is wide open and Jeongin spots Felix sitting on the wooden planks outside.

“Hey.” Jeongin says. The sounds are quieter out here, he doesn’t have to yell.

“What happened, man?”

Felix takes his eyes off the students passed out on the lawn and looks up at him.

“Who—” He squints. “Oh. I never got your name.” Felix shuffles over, letting Jeongin sit down. “And it's none of your business.”

“Jeongin.”

“Huh?”

“My name.” Jeongin mutters. “Does this have anything to do with Seungmin?”

Felix blanches, glaring.

_Bingo._

“You friends with him?” Felix wraps his arms around his knees again.

“He hasn’t told me anything.” Jeongin smiles timidly. “I know less than you. Probably.”

Felix sighs and uncurls slightly, tracing the spiralling wood patterns with his fingertips. The floorboards tremble under the music spilling out from the open door.

Closer than earlier, Jeongin finally notices the freckles dusting Felix’s face.

Cute.

“What school did you transfer from?”

Felix rolls his neck to look at him.

“Actually… I didn’t go to college here, I’m from Australia.”

Jeongin perks up, eyes widening. “That’s cool dude, when did you—”

“Two weeks ago!” He facepalms. “I can’t _believe_ I’m here, I haven’t even unpacked all my bags yet.”

Jeongin blinks as his mind catches up, and he realises Felix is referring to the party.

“What are you studying?”

Felix snickers. “This is starting to sound like a career counselling session.” He places his hands down behind him, leaning back and twisting more fully towards Jeongin. “But, nursing, actually.”

“Woah, that’s—”

“I know! Wouldn’t’ve guessed, right?” He laughs, smiling. “What about you?”

“Just science,” Jeongin looks down, “not sure what I’m gonna do with it yet though.”

Felix nods, still smiling. “S’okay, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

His new demeanour infects Jeongin within seconds, and they giggle nonsensically. A window on the second floor opens, illuminating a patch of grass a little distance away. Loud hollers and chattering soon follow it, like thunder chasing after lightning. As expected, someone falls off the balcony a few flower pots over, landing in a bush. They both ignore the commotion, and the window closes shut.

“Do you have a job?” Felix asks. “I haven’t found one yet… my parents are still paying for everything,” Felix winces, “I kinda feel bad.”

“Yeah, I’m a barista.” Jeongin rubs his elbow, smiling wryly. “Not a very good one, I work at the _Carpe Diem Café.”_

Felix tenses. “The… Chan’s your _boss?_ ”

Jeongin stares, unblinking.

Oh. Right.

Shit.

Felix shakes off his overcast expression, replacing it with his shining smile from earlier. “He was my online korean learning partner before I came here, actually.” 

Jeongin isn’t sure how to respond with how fast Felix’s mood is changing. “Oh, I see.”

" _Hello?_ What in the _fuck_ is taking so long?”

Jeongin jolts as Minho’s voice hits him from inside the house. A bunch of annoyed shouts follow as Minho’s screech interrupts the bass drop.

“Hyunjin!” Jeongin gasps, making to stand.

“What?” Felix realises a moment later and jumps up. “Shit! I forgot.”

Jeongin tugs at Felix’s sleeve and rushes to get back inside, careful not to trip over the snoring bodies piling near the entrance.

Felix’s moves in front of Jeongin when they pass through the middle of the room, darting between their fellow students while Jeongin tries not to lose his grip. There’s less people around than earlier, but Jeongin can still see a trickle of frat boys entering from one the side doors. 

Letting go of Felix’s shirt, he slows as they get closer to the kitchen. Minho is holding Hyunjin up from falling off one of the bar stools.

_Bang!_

Jeongin’s turns towards the noise as Felix passes the threshold.

The bathroom door is wide open, harsh white light clashing against the murky neons.

Seungmin slams into the opposite wall, twisting away and laughing as Chan stumbles out and hits his own shoulder on the banister. In a flash, they disappear upstairs to the second floor.

Someone kicks the bathroom door shut.

Jeongin rolls his eyes.

He enters the kitchen, and sees Felix helping Hyunjin off the stool. Minho calls him over.

“What’s up?” Jeongin hums, trying to peak over Minho’s shoulder.

Those heels on his boots must be tall as _fuck._

“Give me your bag.”

Jeongin shrugs off his messenger bag, holding the flap open. “This? Why?”

Minho turns and tips a plate of cupcakes straight into it.

“Wha—what are you doing?” Jeongin squeaks.

“I covered them in cling film, don’t worry.” Minho snickers, putting the plate into the sink. “You’re smuggling them out for me.”

“But that’s stealing!”

“No ones gonna finish them by now anyways.” He shrugs and points at the clock on the wall. “Might as well not let them go to waste.”

“Right…”

Felix grunts, and they turn to see him sliding across the floor, with Hyunjin snoring quietly on his shoulder.

“Guys? Little help here?”

Outside on the lawn, the frosted grass melts away as they walk through it, Jeongin and Felix carrying a slumping Hyunjin as Minho walks ahead, pushing some of the sleeping bodies out of their path with his boot.

Hyunjin is missing both his shoes.

Felix complains as his one white sock stains with green the longer they limp towards the footpath.

“Jisung?”

Jeongin and Felix squeak, almost bumping into Minho’s back.

Minho hunches down and Jeongin sees him shake a sleeping man, body curling protectively around a flower pot.

 _“Wake up.”_ Minho hisses.

The music is quiet enough for Jeongin to hear him, clear as day.

“Who’s that?”

Minho stands, “My flatmate.” and kicks him lightly on the butt.

“You don’t live in the dorms?” Felix asks.

“I thought you knew Minho.” Jeongin frowns, shifting Hyunjin’s weight.

They squat down at the edge of the lawn, and Jeongin collapses further until grass cakes his pants in green stains, keeping Hyunjin’s head on his lap. Felix reaches over and tilts Hyunjin’s head to the side.

“Incase he vomits.” Felix says, snorting when Jeongin pokes Hyunjin’s cheek threateningly.

"Everything tasted like fucking plastic, bro. Why’d you even drink so much?" Felix grumbles when Hyunjin stirs. “Anyways. Yeah, we only know each other through Chan, that’s all.”

Jeongin nods, hearing a rustle and turning to see Minho dragging Jisung over.

Minho finally reaches a conclusion, after grumbling about personal information for the past minute. “We live at the Bayeight apartments, above that one PC bang?”

Felix straightens, snapping his fingers. “Oh, sick! Hyunjin lives there too!” He turns to Jeongin. “Wait—I didn't ask, you're a first year right?"

"Oh, no. I'm not." Jeongin smiles awkwardly. "I can't afford rent yet, I kinda skimped out on finding a job until a few months ago, and my parents live in Busan."

Felix laughs. "Guess it's my turn with that struggle next."

Minho lets out a small noise, drawing their attention back onto him.

“So who’s going where? I can’t carry _two_ people up the stairs on my own. And the elevator is broken.”

Minho then leans over Jisung’s body, and sticks a paper napkin a little ways into Hyunjin’s mouth, catching the drool Jeongin is pointedly ignoring.

“Well,” Felix rips a chunk of grass out as he pulls his hands back, rolling his shoulders to stretch, “Hyunjin lives with his parents so we probably… shouldn’t drop him off there anyways…”

Minho scrunches his nose and Jeongin gasps quietly at the sight of it.

“Weird. Bayeight is kinda shitty for a family apartment.”

Jisung squirms in Minho’s arms, eyes peering open and hands swatting at the air. “Hyung don’t.... don’t judge people for their liv—”

He yawns and passes out again.

They all stare at him.

Someone on the patio screeches, and a bunch of fireworks explode above the street, startling Jeongin.

"Stop setting them off, bastards!"

"Forget it." Minho scoffs. "No one gives a shit, this is a student village."

"If anyone calls the campus cops I'm leaving them." Jeongin stares pointedly at Hyunjin, then Jisung.

“Hyunjin can stay with me.” Felix says. “My roommate is visiting his parents.”

Jeongin nods along for a second, then pauses. “Wait, our RA is _so_ strict dude, I dunno if you know yet but that's probably… not a good idea.”

Felix laughs, winking. “Don’t worry, I know. I have bribes.”

Jeongin isn’t sure why he’s giggling but Felix’s smile is so infectious he doesn’t care to find a reason.

“Great.”

Jeongin turns upon hearing his voice, and sees Minho watching them with a blank stare, fist clenching tightly around Jisung’s hoodie.

Huh.

Minho fishes out his phone. “I’ll get us ubers.”

They deposit Hyunjin onto Felix’s bed, after cleaning off his makeup and untying his ribbon. Hyunjin wakes up for a second to sniff the pillow and mutter something, then falls back to sleep, a smile on his face.

Jisung and Minho are long gone by now, having taken the second uber back to their apartment.

Felix walks him back to his own room.

“I’ll buy you lunch tomorrow.” Felix promises as Jeongin turns the key.

“You don’t have to, it’s fine.”

“Please?”

The corners of Jeongin’s lips twitch and he knocks his forehead against the door. “Okay. Thanks man.”

“No, thank _you_.”

Jeongin thinks about Felix’s freckles and laughter for the rest of his rushed, nightly routine.

Until his head hits the pillow.

He lays there quietly in the darkness of his room, as it seeps into his mind and wrings out memories of a softer, slower laugh.

And a face splashed in glitter.

Minh—

He snores.

Jeongin isn’t one to stay up late often, unfortunately. Oh well.

Seungmin knocks on his door the next day, sweating in a turtleneck.

Jeongin closes it in his face and comes back out wearing a wide scoop neck out of spite.

They don’t speak on the way to Jeongin’s class, though Seungmin looks like he wants to ask why Jeongin is walking around with his backpack _and_ his messenger bag. Meanwhile Jeongin glares down at a student trying to cut in line when Seungmin takes both their water bottles to refill at the drinking fountain.

Seungmin’s first class starts a little later, but he always walks Jeongin to his own one regardless.

By late-lunch, Jeongin has forgotten about his earlier grudge and skips up to Seungmin, patting his shoulder.

“This knit is so _chunky_.” Jeongin comments, then holds his phone around to show Seungmin a Twitter thread.

“Couldn’t you have just sent me that?” Seungmin asks, as they both squeeze through the entrance to the cafeteria.

Jeongin huffs. “It’s more fun like this.” He looks around for the end of the row of students, trying to find where to stand. Seungmin spots it first.

Queueing after Seungmin, Jeongin startles when a finger taps him.

“Hey.” A low voice says.

Jeongin turns—almost bumping into the person behind him—to see Felix, holding out a small wad of cash.

“You know we use our student IDs right?” Jeongin whispers as he takes it. Seungmin shifts uncomfortably from the front.

Felix nods. “Of course, but I don’t think they’re going to confuse me with you that easily.” He points to his bleached white hair.

Jeongin opens his bag and hands Felix a cupcake.

“The balance.”

Felix smirks. “Did you know I baked these?”

Jeongin opens his mouth.

And closes it.

Felix’s smirk grows wider, then dissolves into giggles. “Thanks for saving my bribes. And I’m not mad, don’t look so worried dude.”

Felix steps back, eyes flickering to Seungmin for a second — and then he’s leaving, waving as he munches into the cupcake.

Jeongin sticks the money into Seungmin’s back pocket.

The next day, Felix shows up as Jeongin and Seungmin sit down to eat in the courtyard. He still doesn’t acknowledge Seungmin, but after another noon of painful silence, Felix seems to drop his previous notions, and opens up to conversing with him.

In barely any time at all, Jeongin notices Felix grow in his excitement to be talking with Seungmin, going straight past Jeongin on most days to sit beside him whenever he's late to their lunch fest.

Jeongin doesn’t mind, he’s happy to see Seungmin gaining a new friend.

Seungmin helps Felix with his korean—when they have time to burn between classes—and Felix helps Seungmin with his english.

Jeongin almost doesn’t realise he’s also been thrown into the mix of language practice until he finds himself one day, a few weeks later, pouring over a grammar sheet in Felix’s dorm room.

Seungmin isn’t with them today, busy visiting his parents, apparently.

Jeongin’s legs are sore and red from laying on the thin carpet, but he stays still, watching Felix chew on the eraser of his pencil and squint at the paper.

There on the floor, he realises that maybe, he has a new friend, too.

Felix’s concentration snaps and he looks up, pulling the pencil from his mouth and smiling at Jeongin. “Break time?”

Jeongin nods, rolling over and stretching.

His left arm has pins-and-needles.

Jeongin pulls his phone out, pausing his focus-time app and watches his notifications rush back.

He opens Instagram.

Over the past few weeks, Chan is slowly appearing more and more frequently in the background of Seungmin’s selfies. The most recent one—Jeongin taps the heart button—shows his face fully in the frame.

Interesting.

Jeongin quickly sends Felix a meme and smiles to himself when Felix cackles from under the bed. 

Both Felix and his roommate’s chargers cables are broken, the only ones left being the super short ones they use with their portable chargers, but Hyunjin had borrowed them earlier and still hasn’t come back to return them.

Jeongin’s smile grows wider when a message from Minho pops up, showing a hyperlink to a tweet. Jeongin rolls half-way, onto his side, shaking away the last of his pins-and-needles.

 _This is you_ Minho writes beneath the link.

Jeongin taps the link and a photo of a fennec fox shows up, it’s body is photoshopped into a loaf of bread.

The caption is blank.

Jeongin giggles quietly, typing out his reply, then puts his phone back into his pocket. He sits up and stretches again, groaning has back pops and crackles. Felix tries to get up and thumps into the underside of his bed instead.

Jeongin thinks back to the pizza slice Minho had given him the other night, after Jeongin got upset at failing to make his coffee order in oneshot, for the billionth time.

“D’ya want food?”

Felix crawls out from under the bed, and sneezes.

“Yeah, it's your turn, just don’t get _none-pizza-with-left-beef_ this time.”

“I was counting on it.” Jeongin grins and pulls his phone out again, dialing the nearest pizzeria from heart.

“Hi, I’d like to order...”

It's a Saturday night, and Jeongin is wiping down the last table, scrubbing at a new stain from earlier during the evening. A toddler had knocked over a smoothie and now a quarter of the table is sticky and gross from the dry sugar.

Jeongin gives up and goes to rinse the dirty rag in the sink.

Poor Chan’s wallet.

The door opens, bringing a gust of cold air with it.

“Hyung. You’re late.” Jeongin points at the mug on the counter without looking.

“Is it cold?”

Jeongin shakes his head, and Minho takes a sip, walking around and into the staff zone. Jeongin wrings the rag out, then dunks it back under the stream.

“Perfect again.”

Jeongin jumps at the voice near his ear, splashing Minho with water as a result. Minho hums and moves away. “How many?”

“Four.” Jeongin watches the water drain down the sink, unmoving. “You weren’t here.”

A hand squeezes Jeongin's shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” Minho says softly.

He feels his heart thump — once, twice.

And, it's gone.

Jeongin hangs the rag to dry and puts the rest of his cleaning gear back onto their shelf under the till.

Minho finishes the rest of his coffee as Jeongin collects the keys and shrugs on a hoodie. The wind is blowing strong enough outside to almost mask the sounds of cars and pedestrians.

“Chan invited me to another party.” Minho says, moving around Jeongin to wash the mug himself. “He said I should bring a plus one this time.”

Jeongin stares. “So… you’re going to ask Jisung?”

“What? No.” Minho frowns, then his face grows pink. “Uh, he’s at work. That’s why.”

“Oh.” Jeongin blinks. “Oh! Right, you’re asking me, I don’t thi—last time was kinda…”

“No pressure,” Minho rocks on the balls of feet, “we can do something else.”

“I’ve actually got an exam to study for,” Jeongin smiles, “not kidding.”

“Study session then?”

Jeongin gives a thumbs up. Moments later, his keys are rattling as he shuts and locks the doors.

Jeongin wraps his arms around himself, thin hoodie whipping in the wind. Minho laughs in his cozy parka jacket, pinching Jeongin’s nose as it immediately goes red.

“Bullseye!”

“Well _shit._ ” Jeongin mutters under his breath.

“Well shit indeed.” Minho grunts from behind him.

“Fuck, sorry for not telling you sooner,” Jeongin’s roommate says shakily as his parents roam and rummage through their tiny, shared room behind him, “they came out of _nowhere_ , dude. I didn’t even know until like ten minutes ago.”

“It’s okay, I get it.”

Jeongin doesn’t, really, but he can try to imagine it.

He turns to look at Minho, is staring at Jeongin’s roommate with unimpressed eyes. Minho flicks his gaze to him, and his expression morphs into something… else.

Jeongin can’t quite place it.

“We can study at mine.” Minho says.

“Is that okay?”

“I wouldn’t’ve offered it wasn’t,” Minho laughs, “let’s get going before you fall asleep.”

“You have a _cat tree?_ ” Jeongin points at the floor-to-ceiling toy in question, barely restraining a scream.

“Yes.”

“I thought this building didn’t allow pets.”

“Yes, and?” Minho opens an unmarked door, takes off his jacket, and tosses it in.

“So you just have a bunch of pet stuff with no… cats? At all?”

Minho nods as Jeongin marches off, taking his workbooks and laptop to place on the dining table.

“Thirsty?” Minho squats down to rummage through the fridge.

Jeongin hums in response, and Minho places two _Hello Kitty_ mugs down, one on the coaster closest to Jeongin and the other directly in the middle of Minho’s notepad, staining it.

They manage focusing, like good students, for two and a half hours.

Then; Minho starts tapping Jeongin’s ankle with his foot, slowly, until he forces Jeongin to close his laptop with a grumble.

“C’mon, that's enough, let’s play Smash.”

“Fine.”

**1-0**

Jeongin smiles at his first victory, laughing when Minho screams out a nonsensical string of noises and pretends to die on the couch.

**4-0**

They have a bag of chips between them now, but after his fourth win Minho moves it onto his lap in retaliation.

**4-1**

Minho jeers, laughing hautilly as Jeongin pouts after losing for the first time that night.

Jeongin steals a potato chip.

**7-1**

“Stop cheating.” Minho hisses, poking Jeongin’s ribs with his knuckle, Jeongin yelps snapping his elbows down to hide his sides with his arms.

“Hm?” Minho immediately loses interest in the screen, putting down his controller. “Innie, are you ticklish?”

“No.”

“Denial won’t save you.” Minho smirks, wiggling his fingers.

Jeongin pushes off the couch with a gasp as Minho lunges, sliding his controller across the floor and towards the pile of cables and wires for safety.

He squeals when Minho turns to him, and runs past to vault behind the couch, Minho catches his hoodie as he lands and yanks. Jeongin stands up, and bursts into laughter when Minho reaches over the edge to tickle him from behind.

The couch tips over.

Jeongin grunts as it hits his lower back, crawling out from under it. Minho releases his grip, yelping as he tumbles off along with all of the cushions and the empty bowl.

The bowl rolls into the kitchen, rattling as it spins to a stop.

Jeongin, tugging his socks up, doesn’t hear Minho coming until he tackles Jeongin’s legs. He falls backwards to the floor, smacking the ground with arms and tucking his chin in.

Good thing he remembers those taekwondo lessons.

“Ouch.” Jeongin huffs, looking at his reddening hand, slowly patterning into criss-cross imprints. His head may be safe but these thin carpets still _suck_.

“Get over it.” Minho grunts, shimming up Jeongin’s body. “You can not escape the tickle monster. It’s against the law.”

Jeongin blinks away from his hand, looking up at Minho’s deadpan expression.

And his other hand swings cushion into his face.

“Fuck!”

Minho rolls off, and Jeongin scrambles to stand, knocking over a tall houseplant in the process.

The clay pot shatters against the hard tiles along the edge of the room, free from the confines of the incorrectly measured carpet.

Oh.

_Shit._

Jeongin freezes, watching a shard spin across the floor like the blood pounding through his ear. He can feel sweat running down his back, shirt sticking against his spine. But Minho… doesn’t say anything.

He watches Minho stand up and dust off his knees.

“I’m _so sorry—”_

Minho interrupts him with a snort. “It’s fake, don’t worry.”

He bends over, pulling up a leaf, and tries to tear through it with his fingers, even going as far after a moment of struggle as to bite and pull at it with his teeth.

“See?”

Minho puts the spit coated plastic leaf on Jeongin’s palm, and Jeongin curses, shaking it off.

It falls and gathers with the rest of them on the floor.

Jeongin runs to the sink, rinsing his hands while pouting. “Gross.”

He turns off the tap when Minho’s laughter calms. The ticking of the clock on the pantry door fills the space, and Minho fidgets from across the room.

“It’s late.” Jeongin announces. “I’m staying the night.”

Minho stares. “What if I don’t want you to?”

“But you _do_.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Minho sighs, and turns to push the couch back up. “I wanna watch _Frozen_ first.”

Jeongin scrunches his nose, and flaps his wet hands. “We’re not doing that.”

“Why not?”

“We already watched it at the cinema last week!”

Minho rolls his eyes. “I can watch it by myself, just use your phone or something.”

Jeongin mutters under his breath about losing his airpods, and after drying his hands, settles down with Minho to watch anyway.

He can feel a warm breath tickling his nape. Jeongin squirms in discomfort, panting softly as the heat around his body seeps into his growing awareness.

His legs are stiff and tense, caught tightly in swathes of fabric.

And his phone is ringing.

Jeongin reaches out of the pile of blankets, trying not to jostle Minho as he does so.

He squints at the screen.

His arm tires out as he waits for the blur in his eyes to diminish, and he jerkily moves it closer to his face.

“Seungmin…?” Jeongin whispers, thumbing down the volume after he answers.

“Are you—is this a bad time?”

Seungmin’s voice sounds teary, startling Jeongin awake.

He sits up. “Hyung? No it's fine, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Seungmin mumbles, the audio distorts as it tries to pick up the quiet noise. “I don’t know why I—sorry.”

“You’re lying.” Jeongin stands up carefully, tip toeing over the couch towards his backpack in the hallway. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Five? How…?”

“I’m at Minho’s.” Jeongin doesn’t elaborate, and ends the call.

He slips the backpack on, and skips over to the plastic plant, straightening it. He holds the broken clay pieces in one hand, and walks over to the couch, brushing Minho’s hair from his eyes with the other.

Minho mutters unintelligibly.

Jeongin turns to leave, and gasps upon seeing Jisung sitting at the dining table.

He blinks at him, eyes round, and eats a handful of cereal.

Jisung points to the phone in front of him, then to his airpods, and gives Jeongin a thumbs up. Jeongin nods, dropping the clay pieces in the trash, and creeps towards the front door. They wave at each other as Jeongin leaves.

He doesn’t notice the smell of cats until it disappears.

"I thought you and Chan were fucking?" Jeongin says, as Seungmin turns and sniffles into his shoulder again.

Seungmin shrugs pathetically in return, still in Felix's shirt. Or... maybe its original owner is Chan?

"It's complicated."

Jeongin gives up on guessing. "That's pretty cliché for you."

"Well," He huffs, "I do like a challenge."

Jeongin holds up another spoonful of ice cream, feeding it to Seungmin.

He flips through some channels until a cartoon shows up, and he tosses the remote out of Seungmin’s reach.

Jeongin navigates his way through the cafeteria, scrunching his nose at the overwhelming smells from both food and unkempt students. Since Felix usually eats with them outside in the courtyard, staying indoors is their safest bet to avoid him.

Jeongin sips on his juicebox after collecting their lunch, heading towards Seungmin, who is staring down at the table. He still looks absolutely dreadful.

Or, y'know, like _shit._

He fishes out his phone and scrolls to his saved folder of emergency-use puppy videos.

Mrs. Kim hands him the mint chocolate ice cream cone, grinning at him, ear-to-ear, from her ice cream truck.

“There you go, good job on that exam!”

Jeongin holds it carefully, and smiles up at her. “Thank you!”

He hears a rustle from the back of the truck, and Mrs. Kim spins around.

“Unlike a certain _someone_.”

Jimin—Mrs. Kim’s daughter—glares, holding a bag of ice over her head. “Where did you want this, mum?”

“Over there, please. By the way Jeong—oh, he’s gone.”

Jeongin waves at them from across the street, cheekily grinning, then turns to walk underneath the shade before his ice cream melts.

He's closer to the edge of the city. Quaint, two story buildings draw him in from one side, as he follows the stream of pedestrians. He sticks behind the slower walkers, watching the light glow through their hair, not having any single destination in mind.

He licks his ice cream, deciding to phone his parents, and tells them about how his exam went.

“We knew you could do it.” The speaker distorts his mum’s laugh, and Jeongin ducks into the wide alley besides a family restaurant.

“Have you made any friends yet?”

Jeongin laughs to himself, his dad has been asking that in every phone call ever since he entered university. Usually he tells them Seungmin—along with a few of his old highschool friends—is all he needs, or dodges the question entirely, but today…

“Yes,” Jeongin says, smile leaking into his tone, “I have.”

“That’s wonderful—”

“Never thought I’d see the day—”

They talk over the top of each other, clamouring for Jeongin’s attention.

It makes him feel homesick. “I wish you both were here, we could catch up more easily.”

His parents coo at him.

“We’re sorry baby, we’ll try to come up for the holidays.”

“And you can see your brother too!” His dad snorts.

Something cold and wet touches his fist, and Jeongin jerks away from his phone to stare.

His ice cream is dripping all over his fist.

Shit.

“Jeongin?”

“Sorry! I gotta go—” Jeongin accidentally hangs up too soon, and facepalms with his phone still in hand.

His movement jostles the last of his ice cream and it flops into a drain.

“G-ddamnit.”

He groans in defeat, resigning to chewing on the cone instead.

Jeongin shivers under the shock blanket, staring blankly at the bricks below his feet.

"You're all cleared." The paramedic's voice cuts through the fog in his head, too loud.

He isn't sure what happens next, but some time must've passed because the next thing he knows Chan is shaking his shoulder. "C'mon buddy, we gotta get you outta here. Innie?"

"They... called you?" Jeongin mumbles, Chan steadies him when he makes to stand.

"Yeah, how does hot chocolate sound?"

"...Good." Jeongin shakes his head. "Sorry I'm—"

Chan interrupts him with a bunch of whispered reassurances, steering Jeongin away and towards his car.

Six songs later, Jeongin gasps and hunches over, Chan keeps one hand on the steering wheel and pats his pack.

"It's okay," Chan squeezes his shoulder, "this happens all time. You'll be okay."

Jeongin nods and takes a sip from the bottle Chan pulls from the cup holder. "Yeah, I know, just—" another sip, "riding it out."

"You're doing a good job."

Chan turns into a drive-thru and orders one hot chocolate to go.

"Nothing for you?"

"Nah, it'll be faster this way."

"Oh." Jeongin shifts in his seat. "Thank you hyung... for like, before too."

"Not a problem, Innie." Chan turns and smiles. 

Calming.

After a long, warm cuddle session with Seungmin, Jeongin continues to stare, upside down on his bed, at the shut door in his wake. Chan has given him time off of work, but Jeongin can’t bring himself to work on his assignments in the spare days left. The digital clock on his roommate’s bedside table flashes red in the corner of his eyes.

How long has it been since Seungmin left…?

Jeongin blinks, then yelps as he realises how dry his eyes are. He rolls over onto stomach, scrubbing at his face, and reaches blindly for his water bottle.

He hears a knock.

“Hm?” His roommate hadn’t said anything about visitors. Jeongin sits up and shuffles over to the door, squinting through the peephole. Minho crosses his arms.

“Oh, hey.” Jeongin backs away as Minho enters, holding a brown paper bag in one hand. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Minho nods, as he clears away a spot to put the bag down. He peels off the circular sticker and the folded flap unfurls. A mouth watering smell wafts by Jeongin’s nose, as he notices the logo on the front.

“Chan told me what happened.” Minho finally says. “You don’t have to explain.”

Jeongin sighs in relief, he hasn’t spoken to anyone but Seungmin, Chan and his parents about it, leaving his phone dead under at the bottom of his bag by the door. Minho hands him a plastic container and a pair of chopsticks.

“Come on, eat.”

They sit on the floor, Minho procuring another takeout box for himself, and quietly eat. Part way through the meal, Jeongin mentions his flat phone battery and Minho gets up to charge it for him, ruffling his hair as he passes by.

“You’re free tomorrow.” Minho says, as Jeongin wipes the grease off his fingers with a tissue. It’s a statement, not a question, but Jeongin nods regardless.

“Wanna come with me to a cat café?”

Jeongin bites his lip. “A café? I’m not sure if…”

“It’ll be fine, we’ll just call it _checking out the competition_ , right?” Minho giggles to himself, gathering their trash in one bundle and making his way to the door.

“Right.” Jeongin waves as Minho steps out into the hallway. “I’ll go.”

Minho smiles, then points at the phone on the charger. “I’ll text you the details when my hands are less dirty, see ya.” He lightly kicks the door shut.

Jeongin looks up from his phone, eyes fluttering away the clock burning into his retinas. It’s Saturday, and he’s come out of the dormitory to find Minho already waiting near the gate, ten minutes earlier than the time they both decided on last night.

“How long have you been standing there?” Jeongin scoffs as he approaches.

Minho raises an eyebrow. “And why are you so early?”

“Ugh.”

They fall into step as Minho steers him away from the campus. Jeongin glances at the bus stop as they pass it, but Minho ignores it, however, what he doesn’t ignore is Jeongin’s gaze. And so, Jeongin finds a hand sliding into his own, squeezing softly.

“It isn’t far from here, we’re just going to walk.”

“Oh.” Jeongin squeezes back. “Thanks.”

Minho snorts, then complains about the sweat and releases his grip.

The cat café stood ahead of them, purple paint covering the walls surrounding the windows on the entrance. Jeongin pushes through the door, stepping onto the welcoming mat and holding it open as Minho walks in behind him. His eyes skim over the health and safety signs, until he sees another door in front of them, next to a rack of magazines.

He lets Minho go through first this time. A bell jingles, signalling their arrival, like presents passing by on Santa’s sleigh. Jeongin looks around the room, wondering at the lack of customers, and spots the reception behind a few round tables.

Jisung waves at him, smiling from behind it. “Hey!”

“You work here?” Jeongin’s eyes widen as they walk over, puzzle pieces clicking into place as his mind whirrs. That explains… a lot.

“Mhm.” Jisung snorts. “Minho didn’t tell you?”

“No.” Jeongin elbows the man in question and he grunts, huffing, but ultimately ignoring it, instead settling his gaze towards the staircase in the corner. Jeongin sees a cat, slowly peering down from the second floor.

“Thanks for helping at the party by the way.” Jisung’s voice draws him back over. “I didn’t get to tell you that morning.”

“Oh, I didn’t really do anything…” Jeongin shrugs, and orders two cupcakes, Minho adding his own choices for their drinks. “Wait, were you the one who fell out of the window?”

“Nah, she was some sorority girl I think? Didn’t hear much about it.” Jisung shrugs. “I passed out the _au naturel_ way.”

“Sweet.”

As Jeongin takes out his wallet, something brushes against his back. He freezes when a warm breath hits his neck, Minho hooking his chin over Jeongin’s shoulder. Minho leans into him, standing on his toes slightly to reach.

“I’m paying.” Minho sounds angry at himself, for _some_ reason, as he pins Jeongin's hand back against his side.

“Chan didn’t give me unpaid leave.” Jeongin whines, trying to yank his wrist out, but his arm is immovable. When Minho holds his own card out, Jeongin swats it with his free hand to the floor. “Seriously, hyung.”

Minho squeezes him in a bear hug, both of them immediately scowling in unison.

“I hate this.”

“Me too.” Minho pauses, then says as a smirk creeps into his voice. “Jisung, I’ll pay you back later okay?”

“Hey!” Jeongin grunts as Minho starts to drag him back away from the counter. Jisung scampers around to pick up Minho’s card, and tosses it back to its owner. “That’s cheating! You’re not allowed to be roommates.”

“End of skit. Come on,” Minho let’s him go and gestures upstairs, “the ones I want you to meet are upstairs, let’s go.”

The stairs are fairly narrow, like the café itself, curving at the back corner, then doubling back towards the shop entrance. There are no railings, but the light is good enough for them to spot any stray cat toys they may trip up on.

“Why aren’t there any people?” Jeongin whispers to Minho as their heads pop up into the second floor, also empty of any other customers.

“It’s employee-only hours right now, so the cats can relax.” Minho wanders off towards the tables opposite the stairwell, lit by the giant windows in front of them. “But we’re special cases.”

Jeongin nods, trailing after him, and decides not to question it any further. Minho seems to know his way around these things.

Crouching down, Minho coos as a cat crawls out from a tiny tent. “Hello, my prince.”

“Who’s this?” Jeongin slowly sits down close to him, trying not to startle the cat.

“This is Jinnie.” Minho hums, stroking the cat— _Jinnie’s_ —fur as he nuzzles up to him. Another, fluffier cat, leaps onto the tabletop next to Minho’s head, and starts licking his ear. “Good morning, Sky.”

Jeongin watches as Minho cuddles up with the two cats, his _favourites_ , he says, while pointing out the names of a few other cats that pass by to stare out of curiosity. Jisung appears a few minutes in and places their orders on one of the tables next to them. He then hands a small jar of cat treats to Minho, winking. “ _Roommate benefits._ ”

They eat their cupcakes, careful not to leave any crumbs on the floor, and Jeongin slowly sips at his juice box.

“Do you have any of your own?” Jeongin whispers, later, after Jinnie falls asleep on his lap.

Minho nods. “Sort of, they’re at my parents house because our apartment doesn’t allow pets.”

“What're their names?”

“Soonie, Doongie and Dori.” Minho smiles as stares down at Sky in thought. “All boys.”

Their conversation trails off into silence as Sky joins Jinnie in sleep, and Jeongin is content to simply stare as Minho lovingly pets any of the cats who dare try to enter their circle. Enticing them over with one handful of treats, and a laser pointer.

Jeongin doesn’t notice he’s zoning out until he’s on count number fifteen for Minho’s eyelashes.

“G-d, you’re so beautiful.” Jeongin mumbles.

Minho looks over at him, raising an eyebrow. “Innie?” 

He freezes. “I was just—talking to Jinnie. Out loud.” Oh man, does he have a crush on Minho? Jeongin tenses at the idea. Minho is turning out to be kinder and more loving than he thinks...

Shit.

Okay, yeah _maybe._

“Jinnie left your lap five minutes ago.” Minho’s eyes flutter, like fairy wings shaking off a magical supply of dust. “Are you okay?”

 _Okay_ , definitely.

“Um, yeah.” Jeongin nods, too many times, and stands up. He brushes some of the hairs stuck to his pants off. “I think I should leave now.”

“What?” Minho’s face falls flat, and his hands slow to a stop, Sky’s purring ends with it. “You haven’t finished the extra snack yet.” He points at the half-eaten cookie on the plate next to Jeongin’s feet, then quickly picks it up to place on a table.

“I’m not hungry, it’s fine.” Jeongin starts walking back towards the stairwell, trying not to move too fast so he doesn’t scare the cats.

“I can walk you back.” Minho frowns, following him while carrying their small stack of plates, and the jar of treats.

“It’s okay!” Jeongin exclaims, a bit louder than was hoping for, dammit. “You don’t have to.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No!”

They both flinch and the nearby cats scamper off, Minho’s face screws up in displeasure as he spots Sky and Jinnie disappearing downstairs, even further away from him.

“Is everything cool up there?” Jisung calls out to them, but neither of them respond.

“I won’t… I’m not going to follow you if you’re uncomfortable.” Minho says after a beat.

This isn’t supposed to happen, Jeongin feels his stomach churning as Minho switches his weight from one foot to the other. He looks away.

“I’m not.” Jeongin says plainly. “You can walk me back, if you still want to.” 

Minho pulls Jisung aside when they reach the first floor, quietly speaking with him in low tones, a hand covering their lower faces. Jeongin looks away and makes his way through the first door, pausing to wait for Minho in the outer room. They walk back to the university in silence, arms still brushing as they walk, Jeongin feels his eyes water slightly as the wind picks up, and hopes he drank enough juice before his panic induced escape.

“I’m sorry.” Jeongin turns to Minho once they reach the entrance of the dormitory.

Minho shrugs. “It’s fine, I should’ve known you’d still be jumpy after the accident.”

“It’s not—I’m just, sorry.” Jeongin doesn’t know how to explain without, well, _explaining_.

“Goodnight Innie… in advance.” Minho smiles crookedly.

Jeongin nods, watching him leave. “Goodnight.”

The sun hasn’t set yet.

Minho’s confused and distressed expression haunts him for the rest of his day, and throughout the night in his dreams, once Jeongin’s head finally hits the pillow.

They haven’t spoken since then, not even over text. Seungmin hasn’t been around over the weekend either, but Jeongin doesn’t have the faintest idea as to why. He shows up to his shift early, hoping to catch Minho, but only finds a few of his coworkers mulling about. 

They give him a free slice of cake though, which is nice.

Loud cries from a baby startle Jeongin from his thoughts, and the Monday bustle takes over his mind. Everything starts off pleasant, _at first_ , until he swaps from cleaning plates in the back to taking a stand in the frontlines.

“Order for Emily!”

None of the customers make a move in his direction, an old woman passes by him to collect her tray from his coworker besides her.

“Order for Emily! ...Emily?” Jeongin repeats, shuffling nervously. He hopes they haven't left yet.

“Jeongin.” His co-worker, Marcel—an exchange student he met at the other dormitory while visiting Felix—whispers, pointing at the label. “You pronounce it, like, Emile.”

“Oh.” Jeongin frowns, tugging at his earlobe. His ability to guess name pronunciations rarely fails. Weird. “Sorry, order for Emile!”

A man appears in seconds, laughing. “I know, I know.”

“What?” 

“I’ve heard _that_ fuck up before. You’re not the first.” He brushes against Jeongin’s hand. “Just wanted to see you squirm.” Finally taking the cup, he leers down at him.

Jeongin tries not to bristle uncomfortably, holding his blank customer service smile through gritting teeth.

“So, baby? Did I—”

“Sir, please move out of line, you’re obstructing other customers.” Marcel cuts in firmly, carefully pushing Jeongin towards the coffee making station. “ _Wow_ , what a weirdass.”

Jeongin unfreezes at his touch and hurries along, thanking the person watching nearby who jumps to take his place.

He hears Emile grumble something unintelligible, but luckily, sees him leaving without further incident. Jeongin ends up redoing the next four orders of coffee, spilling cinnamon all over the counter not even a minute in. By the sixth, he also starts spelling names wrong—confusing Marcel—as he tries making up for lost time.

Taking a seat at the cash register, when his other coworker leaves for an emergency toilet break, Jeongin thinks the resting position might help him calm down, even with the cost of more face-to-face interactions.

It doesn’t, of course.

He manages to get through a group of sweaty cyclers—still in their helmets and dripping mud in a neat line through the middle of shop—and an employee from the florist across the road, before he messes up again and overcharges a business woman when she tries to order a large amount of muffins and tea for her whole office.

Taking a few bills from the till, Jeongin rushes after her to hand them over once he realises, apologising profusely. 

She smiles in return, luckily. Jeongin breathes a sigh of relief before heading back inside, only to be immediately given a spray bottle and a rag.

“Stick with cleaning duty for now, alright?”

“Okay!”

Jeongin tries to keep his smile up, as he weaves between soiled tables. He backs away after a wiping one down, and stumbles into someone.

“So sorry—”

They wave him off, going back to scrolling through their phone, and Jeongin takes a peak towards the counter to check if anyone has noticed.

Nothing.

And so goes the rest of the evening, a few bumps here and there but Jeongin’s bright grin doesn’t waver, saving him from the wrath of any other customers who might try to call on his manager.

Marcel leaves as the night shift begins, patting his shoulder apologetically as he passes.

It’s closer to the end of the night, when the crowd dwindles and lulls to only a few students and office workers sitting or standing about, that the bell above the doors jingle again. Jeongin automatically takes a quick glance up from the table, and squeaks.

Minho.

He probably doesn’t want to see me… Jeongin frowns as he thinks to himself, from his spot in the corner, then straightens and calmly walks back around the counter.

“Gahyeon noona? Can you switch with me? I’ll clean the back.”

“Sure.”

Rinsing his hands, he tosses his rag into a basket and takes a new one from the pile on the shelf. Peaking around the cabinets holding their bulkier collection of dishes, he spots Minho ordering a simple coffee. Huh.

From Jeongin’s frequent, sneaky glances in his direction, he manages to see Minho sitting down to use his laptop for a short while, not even bothering to take off his coat, before taking his paper cup and leaving with it.

Jeongin doesn’t see him again that night.

“Did something happen between you two?” Chan asks, as they close down the shop together.

“No.”

“You didn’t even ask who I was talking about it.”

Jeongin finishes placing the last of the ceramic mugs from the dishwasher back onto the shelf. “I know what you meant, _nothing_ happened, hyung.”

Chan sighs. “Look, I’m sorry for telling him about your accident.”

“I told you nothi—what? No, that was fine! It didn’t have anything to do with that.”

“It? So something did—” Chan pauses when Jeongin glares, and raises an eyebrow knowingly. “Fine, I’ll drop it, jeez.”

He picks up the heavy carpet shampooer at his feet, and shuffles past Jeongin to store in the back. The muddy stains are thankfully gone. Jeongin takes a moment to check his phone. Finding no messages from Minho, he shuts it off again with a frown.

“Are you free after this?” Chan's voice starts from behind him, then ends in front.

Jeongin nods, sliding on his backpack and twiddling with the straps.

“Seungmin, Felix and I are going out tonight, wanna come with?”

“You’re not fighting?” Jeongin’s eyes grow wide. “I thought you guys weren’t getting along?”

Chan laughs, rubbing his neck. “Oh, uh, we kinda were, I guess.” He smiles distantly. “We managed to reconcile during the weekend though. Was nice.”

“So that’s why Seungmin was gone.” Jeongin deadpans. “ _Well then_ , I wouldn’t want to interrupt your date, hyung.” 

“It isn’t!” Chan splutters, pausing as they move towards the entrance. “They never… I’m not sure if it is.”

Jeongin scoffs, but waits on the pavement for Chan to lock the doors behind them, hands in pocket.

“Fine, I’ll go if they’re okay with it. And I get to leave early.”

“That's fine!” Chan spins around, grinning, then holds up his phone. “I already texted them earlier anyways, while you were cleaning up the tables.”

“They want me to…?” Jeongin blinks and reaches back to scramble blindly for his phone. Unlocking it, he realises he completely missed an unread message from Seungmin while he was checking it earlier.

“ _Cockblock…_ ” Jeongin whispers, snorting as he reads it aloud. Or, maybe, he didn’t whisper. Because Chan startles, choking on his spit in horror, and snaps his gaze to glare down at Jeongin’s phone.

“Come on, let’s go already.” Chan mutters, ears tingeing red as he leads the way.

Jeongin laughs, for the first time this night, and follows.

Now in Chan’s car, they find Seungmin and Felix waiting near a corner store. Seungmin opens the back door and hugs him, apologising for disappearing over the weekend. He shuffles past Jeongin, huffing when Felix takes the other doorside seat, and settles into the middle one.

“ _Thanks_ for leaving all the legroom to me, Lix.”

Chan snorts from the front. “You know there’s a whole free seat in the front right, puppy?”

Jeongin scrunches his nose in distaste as Seungmin sticks out his tongue. Felix shrugs, laughing.

They head to a karaoke box—not too far from the university—and pile, giddily, into the small room. Chan, ever the DJ, immediately hogs the controls, and they take turns singing and screaming along to the music.

“Hey!” At some point, Felix drags Chan away, letting Jeongin scramble to make his choice.

“Is this…” Chan chortles in surprise. “ _Camellia Lady?_ That’s so old, man!”

Jeongin rolls his eyes and takes up his mic again, singing over the trot music when the words light up the screen in front of him. He doesn’t _really_ need to look at the screen, knowing the lyrics like that back of his hand, but singing with an audience isn’t one of his strong suits.

No one interrupts him, and the song finishes. Jeongin turns back nervously and jumps when a hand lands on his shoulder.

“You’re so good, Innie!” Chan yells, over the chaotic dance track that immediately starts playing. “Felix! This doesn’t even have lyrics!”

“Sorry, wrong one!”

A few more songs and a rap battle later, Jeongin feels his eyelids weighing down on him. He slumps into the couch by the wall, waiting for the current song to finish as he blearily tries to track the other’s movements.

“Guys.” Jeongin yawns. “I think I’m gonna go now, ‘m getting sleepy.”

Chan pauses the song. “Sure, let’s go.”

“It's okay! I can walk, you guys keep having fun.” Jeongin straightens up, waving his hands about.

With a scoff, Seungmin crosses his arms. “You’re not going alone, silly.”

“I’m feeling kinda tired too.” Felix hands his microphone to Seungmin, who starts putting the rest of them away. “We should all go.”

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah bro,” Felix pulls him up from his seat, “don’t worry about it!”

They drive towards the campu. By they, Jeongin means Chan. _Of course._ The man in question continues his crude DJ-ing the whole way there, handsfree with his Spotify playlist set to shuffle.

Hopping over the curb, Jeongin turns back to watch Felix get out.

Only… he doesn’t.

“Aren’t you getting out?”

Jeongin squints through the darkness, and Felix winks cheekily in response. He hears the other two in the car cough awkwardly, and Felix yelps when the window starts rolling up on its own. Jeongin stares, mouth agape, until the car disappears into the night.

The latch on his door clicks open, Jeongin quietly stepping in. He shucks off his bag, dropping it down and catching it with his foot to deafen the thud.

“Oh man, you’re back late.”

Jeongin jolts, turning to see his roommate, hunching over his desk with piles of books and worksheets surrounding him.

“And you’re _studying_.”

“Low blow, bro. I have an example tomorrow morn—well, _this morning._ I guess.” His roommate tosses a ball of paper at him. “So what were you doing?”

“Out with friends.” Jeongin throws the paper back at him. “We did karaoke after work.”

“Cool.” His roommate picks up his headphones. “Waaait, _friends?_ Plural?”

Jeongin grumbles his response. “Y’know I don’t just have Seungmin anymore, dude.”

He only gets a hearty laugh in return.

Later, once he finally cleans up and gets into pajamas, Jeongin checks his messages. There are none from Minho, but Jeongin isn’t expecting any in first place. At the top, he sees Seungmin has sent him an image file.

The loading symbol gives way to a blurry scene, Seungmin’s arm is stretching far out, holding the phone away to get both Chan and Felix in the shot. The three of them are on the couch, snacking between four bags of popcorn. They’re all under a long, thin blanket, and if Jeongin squints enough, he thinks Chan might be shirtless. He decides to chalk it up to the blur for his own sanity.

Jeongin smiles, flicking off his lamp and sending a question about the movie they’re watching in response.

He wishes he could do the same with someone else...

If Jeongin thinks his friends are moving too fast he never plans on saying it. The entire _world_ always seems too fast for him. He doesn't get how people know to move from one step to the next without a care in the world. He knows he's spent a little too long thinking over all the progress he's made with Minho, and yet, everything still feels so much easier around him.

Maybe taking the next step wouldn’t be so hard, he thinks. Everyone else does it. And he likes him… right?

_Right?_

Jeongin blinks, startling to check how long he was zoned out, staring out the window. Luckily, it's only been a few minutes.

Yeah… he likes him.

So. He should do something about it.

And it's raining.

He steals his roommate's umbrella as he makes his way out the door, uniform safe in his backpack. Closing each door he passes with a quiet click as to not disturb the napping residents. Sleepy weather. 

Maybe, Minho won't visit tonight. Jeongin hasn’t exactly done this before.

“Careful!”

Swaying to try and not block the path of his other employees, Chan hovers over Jeongin as he picks up the large tray.

“Hyung, _seriously_ , I’ve done this plenty of times.”

Chan stops following him when he exits into the—marginally—wider room, searching for table number.

“I know, I’m just.” Chan whispers to him once he gets back. “Nevermind.”

Jeongin wipes his hands on a towel. Chan hadn’t been around often, the past few weeks, always leaving early or not coming at all. Being the owner, it's fine, no one expects him to be hands-on in the first place. But since sorting things out with Seungmin and Felix, he appears to have figured out the timing.

The evening goes without a hitch, and now, the night is turning out to be going fine too. The midweek is always slower, thankfully.

Chan jokes about as much as he helps Jeongin and the rest of the staff with their tasks. He sticks closer to him though, and Jeongin wonders if anyone has told him about the absolute failure that was Monday.

“Have you talked to Minho yet?” Chan says, taking off his rubber gloves and moving away from the sink.

Jeongin shakes his head when Chan turns to him, forgoing a verbal response and squinting when his bangs prick at his eyes.

They’re standing in the back area, between a narrow stretch of hallway, leading to the car park on the other side of the building—with the employee’s bathroom alongside it—and the baker’s kitchen. The room they’re in serves as mostly storage for frozen and bulk ingredients, and any random cleaning supplies they use less often.

Jeongin leans against one of the huge chest freezers, and internally runs over his confessional plan again.

Minho shows up. He asks him out. Whatever happens, happens.

Boom, there, no hesitation. That’s what he hopes for, at least. Stewing on it any longer is going to be the death of him.

“A bit higher, please.”

Jeongin grunts and straightens his arm, holding Chan’s phone so the flashlight can reach past his head and into the crate below.

“Okay! Thanks, found it.” Chan hoists an inconspicuous bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Leaving Chan to drop off the bag behind him, Jeongin enters the main area.

The bell jingles.

Through the gap between the vending machine and the tall, fake potted plant, Jeongin sees Minho entering through the door, coat swishing behind him. This time, Minho immediately spots him, and levels a piercing stare, its intensity carrying through all the way from the front of the café.

Jeongin blushes hot, and scuttles over until he's hidden out of view.

There goes his plan...

He bombs the next three coffee orders, apologising when Chan offers to redo the last one for him. He pads over to the cash register, sitting down before he can realise his mistake.

But, Minho doesn’t come over to order. Staying at a table in the corner instead, while drinking from a water bottle precariously balancing on the edge of a textbook.

They both stay in their spots until the shift ends, and Minho continues to sit even as Jeongin’s co-workers are leaving.

“Good luck.” Chan pats him on the shoulder, depositing the master keyring in Jeongin’s hands, while Jeongin hands over the tillbox key in return.

Minho ignores Chan as he walks past, only looking up once the door shuts behind him.

“Are you okay?”

It's the first thing Minho says to him after only a few days apart, but Jeongin feels like his breath is rushing out of his lungs all at once.

“Yeah, I’m… fine. Why?” Jeongin steps closer.

Minho raises an eyebrow, closing his laptop. “I saw you messing up a few coffee orders.”

“What?” He scoffs, crossing his arms as his smile drops in the darkness. “Do you only care about the coffee?”

“ _Of course not!_ ” Minho hisses, startling Jeongin when stands up, pushing the chair back. “I care about _you_ , Jeongin, of course I care about you. More than coffee.”

Jeongin’s arms fall to his sides, and he stares, mouth open. He didn’t _really_ mean to insinuate that, honestly, but...

Minho takes a few steps closer, brushing a hand across his cheek. “You’ve been acting weird, y’know. I just… I hoped you weren’t mad at me.”

Oh fuck.

He _isn’t_. Fuck, he definitely _isn’t_ , but Minho doesn’t know that. How can Jeongin expla—

“If you don’t want to see me anymore, I’ll leave.” Minho whispers, and Jeongin feels the warmth of his touch leave his face.

Jeongin snatches Minho’s hand back as he moves it away, threading their fingers together.

“No, don’t.” Even with the barest of movements Jeongin already feels tremors and sweat cascading down his back. “I’m sorry, please don’t go. Go out with me instead.”

“What?” 

Jeongin squeaks and tries to let go of Minho’s hand, but Minho tightens his grip in response, without moving any other muscles.

“Wait, sorry I just—hyung, nevermind.”

“Jeongin, I’ll go out with you.”

Huh? Jeongin eyes focus back onto the backlit man in front of him.

“Like, actually?” Jeongin takes a suspicious step back. “You know I mean a _date_ , right?”

Minho nods, squeezing his hand again.

“Oh.”

They stare at each other for a minute. Watching Minho sway a little, Jeongin realises faint jazz music is still playing from the radio in the back.

“Can we go to the cat café again? After I finish closing up.” Jeongin turns away to peer across the dim room.

“Sure. I thought you didn’t like it there though…?”

Jeongin frowns, letting go of Minho’s hand to shuffle across the room. “Why’d you accept if you thought I didn’t like cats?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have, if I thought you didn’t.” Minho snorts. “I meant it in more of... in a _location_ type of way.”

The button on the radio clicks as Jeongin turns it off. Usually they use a CD player connecting to the speakers scattering the store. Maybe Chan left it on earlier?

“Well, it had nothing to do with either.” Jeongin giggles as he walks back over to Minho.

“Are you gonna tell me?”

Jeongin hums. “Maybe later.”

After locking the doors, Jeongin turns to find Minho a key to his face.

“Oh, did that fall off?”

“No, Jisung gave me a dupe for entering the place late.” Minho looks up at the night sky. “Did you think it would still be open this late?”

Jeongin flushes. “I wasn’t thinking, hyung. Sorry.”

Minho reaches forward and pulls him into a hug, Jeongin sucks in a breath while his keyring jingles loudly at the sudden movement.” 

“No more apologising for tonight, it hurts my heart.” Minho mumbles into the side of Jeongin’s puffy jacket. “That’s enough.”

Jeongin snickers, pushing Minho away. “Okay, you _sap_.”

“Are you sure you’re not too tired? It’s a long walk.”

“ _Hyung_ , I’m fine, let’s go.” Jeongin whines, grabbing Minho’s elbow to tug him along.

Under the moonlight—and Jeongin’s phone, glowing with his GPS—they make their way there without incident.

Jeongin feels like he's bursting at the seams. Many of the cats are awake and rowdily running about between their feet. Minho is smiling so brightly Jeongin doesn’t think they even need to reach the lightswitch. They do, eventually, of course, after Minho leads them both through the mess of tables in the small space.

They talk softly about their memories over the past few months, filling in the gaps with their own perspective.

“Is that why you wanted to come back here?”

Jeongin nods. 

Minho settles his head on Jeongin’s lap, and a few of the cats lie on his own chest in turn.

Eventually, they leave, creeping out of the backdoor and locking it behind them. Minho says his goodbyes after sticking with Jeongin all the way to the door of his room.

Jeongin smiles to himself, and steps inside.

“ _Someone_ looks happy.” His roommate snorts, almost immediately.

Jeongin’s face morphs into a smirk. “Yeah, ‘was on a date.”

“Oh dude, for reals?”

Jeongin walks past to pick up his shower caddy and toiletries bag, humming in response.

“Congrats.” The chair screeches as his roommate leans back. “Y’know, I haven’t been on an actual date in _so_ long, I can’t believe that jerk had to go and tell everyone I was allergic to flowers.”

“Sucks for you.”

“Yeah, they _suck_ for me, dude. But I just want some romance for once!”

Jeongin snorts, and opens the door again with one foot in the air, leaving to go brush his teeth.

A few days later, Jeongin invites Minho on their second date, to an arcade.

“Aren’t you gonna let me pick?” Minho whines as they head over to it.

Jeongin huffs. “The last one counts for you too.”

“Whatever.”

They bump into each other, giggle, and keep walking. Neon lit under the signs, Jeongin excitedly skips his way in, tugging Minho along. Jeongin buys an arcade card for Minho, as he tops up the credit on his own, before leading him further into the room.

Jeongin waves towards an arcade attendant. “Changbin!”

“Jeongin?”

Jeongin leans over to speak to Minho. “This is my best friend Seungmin’s roommate, he works here!”

They exchange a quick greeting. Changbin apologises for having to leave so soon, as another customer shouts for him from afar.

“Dude, let’s go slay a dragon.”

“We’re _both_ knights, huh.” Jeongin giggles, staring as the pixel logo sequence flares up onto the display.

“You’re cute.”

As they go back and forth between co-op and competitive games, Jeongin notices Minho’s gaze catching on his lips more and more, at every pause between games. Jeongin isn’t faring much better, only spotting Minho when he looks up faster and finds him doing the same.

Luckily, the dim, neon lighting is good for hiding his rapidly spreading blush, and Minho doesn’t make any comments on it.

Jeongin’s eyes widen when he glances between a row of claw machines. Seungmin and Felix are there, standing on the other side, engrossing in a game of _Street Fighter_.

Turning away, Jeongin decides to leave them alone, and pads over to Minho’s side.

“You should meet Seungmin soon.” 

“I practically already know him from how much Chan gushes over him. And Felix.” Minho grumbles.

Jeongin slaps his shoulder. “I’m serious.”

“But what if he’s weirdo.” Minho says, teasingly. “You look like you’d be friends with loads of weirdos.”

"I hate you."

"Actually?"

"What—no! I thought we established this." Jeongin slaps his shoulder again, and Minho laughs.

"Mhm, just checking."

Jeongin rocks on the balls of his feet, trying to move into Minho’s vision. “So…?”

“Fine, I will, I will.” Minho says, then gasps and points somewhere in the store. “DDR! Let’s do that next!”

Jeongin yawns, tidying up the stack of business cards on the front counter. It isn’t _that_ late, but what it _is_ , is a week after their first date. And the night after their third one, in which they went to a pizzeria and both ended up in food comas.

...While still in the store.

Something raps on the glass doors, and Jeongin quickly runs over to unlock them.

“Hey.”

Minho smiles, stepping in. “Hi there.”

Half-sprinting through the room, Jeongin dives straight into brewing Minho’s coffee. They chat about their day as he does so, Minho complaining about a horribly slow lecturer, and Jeongin reminiscing about a crayon drawing a kid gave him as a gift, for the biscuits.

Clicking the lid on, Jeongin hands it over. Not even waiting for Minho to take a sip as he turns to pack away the ingredients.

He hears a gasp from behind him, and turns to see Minho taking fast steps towards him.

“You—you got it right. _On the first go._ ”

Jeongin blinks in surprise, and takes a step back when Minho doesn’t stop moving. “Oh, finally. I did!”

He thumps against the wall besides the entrance to the kitchen, and Minho’s shoes touch against his own.

“I’m so happy right now man.” Minho mumbles, cupping Jeongin’s face with his left hand as he looks up at him. “Can I kiss you?”

“Please—”

Jeongin nearly sobs when their lips finally touch. And maybe Minho almost does too, because he laces the fingers of their free hands together in response, squeezing tightly enough for Jeongin to shakeily part his lips for him.

“Ugh, that coffee tastes gross.” Jeongin scowls when they part, looking slightly less dazy than Minho.

“Shut up. No one else ordered it for a reason.” Minho huffs, quickly pecking him before backing away.

“Okaaay!” Neither of them flinch when Chan’s voice rings out, fully aware of presence, from the loud commotion of his struggle to clean the oven behind them. “You two go talk outside, I’ll finish up in here.”

“Thanks hyung.” They both say, simultaneously.

“That’s going to be a thing isn’t it.”

Minho flicks Chan’s forehead, and picks up his cup again. They walk outside, blissful and giddy while they bump against each other.

“Do you _actually_ drink that, usually?” 

“No way, but I’m not wasting the last one I’ll ever order again. Especially not from you.” Minho snorts.

Jeongin waits until Minho finishes the cup, grumbling impatiently, before stealing a kiss.

They walk a little further from the shop, almost out of the radius of it’s light, to toss the empty cup in a recycling bin.

"Let's go stargazing." Minho says, stumbling into another kiss as soon as it's done. Jeongin catches him and they sway together beneath a streetlamp, fingers growing cold from the breeze blowing by and through their hair.

"There's too many lights here."

"We could ask Chan to drive us further out."

Jeongin hums, pulling away to nod. "If he's busy we can always, like, stare dramatically at each other. We’re… already doing that."

Minho's smile is blinding.

_"Cheesy.”_

“That was a joke, dude. You’re still the sap here.”

“Sure, sure.”

Later that night, when they’re lying together on the couch in Chan’s apartment—the man himself snoring away on a beanbag nearby—Minho brushes a lock of hair from his forehead and kisses it.

The television screen flickers.

“I love you."

Jeongin's eyes flutter, turning slightly to whisper against Minho's neck. "Not because of the coffee, right?" He tugs the blanket a little higher.

Minho's hand slides off from his head to interlace their hands together underneath, squeezing tightly for the trillionth time.

"No, not because of coffee."

"...I love you too."

**Author's Note:**

> comments are appreciated, thank u for reading!


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